4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Wed Mar 04, 2009 8:46 pm

A 4 year old child dies Tuesday evening when he fell off a tractor being driven by family friend.Grady County Sheriff sgt. David Jacobson reported child was riding on fender of tractor, and tractor hit a bump child fell off and was ran over by working Bush hog mower. Child was dead at the scene. Chickasha,Oklahoma

Safety people. JimG.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Wed Mar 04, 2009 9:15 pm

How tragic. Though it stands as a reminder to respect these powerful machines and never take safety for granted. Maybe something good will come out of this sad event.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:04 pm

It sure can make a person think about respecting machinery, and never second guessing safety measures. JG

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:13 pm

I worked at a small weekly newspaper here in my town back in the early '70s, as a pressman. My junior and senior years at High school. Anyway, they had copies of every edition of their paper, bound by year, in hardcover book form dating back to the late '50s. Big, thick books.

In my spare time, I would thumb thru those big books looking for interesting articles. You wouldn't believe the number of accidents they reported on, that they even managed to get pictures of, involving men getting knocked off tractor seats by overhanging limbs while out mowing and getting killed by the mower, or rollover accidents caused by the tricycle front ends of the tractor. Each year during the spring and summer, it seems there was at least one or two gruesome reports of such accidents.

I clearly remember one picture of a tractor laying completely upside down in a steep ditch, and a closeup of where the man had lay dying under the steering wheel where it pinned him. These days, the cops and EMS won't let you within a half mile of any type of accident or fire, let alone take a picture.

Heck, these days OSHA would have a conniption fit and shut that newspaper plant down if they had seen a young boy like me running that unguarded machinery with all the gears, chains, rollers and sprockets and me leaning right up on it to inspect the sheets of newsprint coming off the press......

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:23 pm

Thats really sad. It hits home a little more because that's not too far from where I live.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:24 am

Incidents, like this, happen all too often, there have been several, in the area, over the years. I cringe when I see someone mowing, with a child riding along, this is no time for a tractor joy ride.

We had 2 incidents, about 5 miles from here, involving the same Ford tractor. In the first incident, a young child was riding just like in this article and fell to his death under the Bush Hog mower. Only a couple years later, a teenager was Bush Hogging with the same tractor and, somehow, upended the tractor, putting himself under the same Bush Hog. After that incident, the owner burned the tractor.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:12 am

That hits home with our family, My 5 yr old cousin was killed the same way, His Dad is a Dr. and was ready to quit the profession because he could not save Mark. The still are not the same and it happened over 30 yrs ago.Phil My sympathy for the Grand dad and Family.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:10 am

Very Sad and it does happen too often.

Lets review this alittle so maybe some education will come out of it.

Whats the biggest problem with getting hurt with tractors?

Uncovered spinning PTO shafts? I have heard of arms ripped off from these.

Riding on the tractor other than on the seat? We know what can happen.

Unclogging the frozed snowblower with the engine running. Shut the engine off and use an old broom handle or stick. Don't use your hands and arms.

Unclogging the tiller tines? Shut the engine off first.

Working on the brush hog ? shut the engine off first.

These seem to be the biggest problems that i have heard of with tractors so far. One split second of turning it "OFF" can save your life too.

I have heard there is a list of unsafe jobs. Coal mining is first and loggin is second.

When i was building machines, big machines with big gears and 125hp+ electric motors my Dads first words were to watch out for turning parts with loose clothing. He has operated the machines that i was building. He once told me an operator left a hand file in the tee slot on the chuck of a vertical turret lathe and when the machine started up it slide out and cut the guy in half. After hearing that story i would turn the chuck very slow and look for stuff in the vee slots before i ran the machine or even worked on it. I was building lathes with the chucks from 36" in diameter to 144" in diameter. There is so much mass these bigger ones don't stop too quickly. The actually sound like freight trains. You could put a small compact car on the chucks.

Working on elevators is another big safety problem. With replacing bad cables in a mine. The guys in China cut all the ropes but one to replace them. Yes one good rope can do the load duty of the car, the other ones are for saftey. But one bad rope can't and the rope lost traction and down the car went with two guys on the top of it. The safety(brakes) didn't work too because the ropes were that bad. They should of hung the car frame with safety chains first before doing any work on it. As the car started to fall the third guy was about to step on it as the car went down luckily he caught himself. Back when i first went into the business they had 50 people die every year world wide. Now with the added safety education the numbers are very low and into the single digits.

Throught out all my carreers I have always thought about safety first.

Look your job or task your about to do over really well and ask yourself is what i'm about to do safe? Plan every move out before you start on it. Don't trust hydraulic jacks too use jack stands or wooden blocks too. Becareful with using torches near flamable stuff. Always have a fire extinguisher or water hose near by when using a torch. Practice safety everyday its not a given or freebee we have to use it everyday. Again Ask yourself is what i'm about to do safe???? Before you do it!!!!!!

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:52 am

To add to Big Bills list, One of the more common causes of injury and death is equipment falling on someone doing repairs, either slipping off of a jack, or a hydraulic system coming down. Sometimes the hydraulics come down due to someone (including the repairman) bumping the control levers, and sometimes they leak off and the person does not realize it until they are trapped, and then it just keeps creeping down, exerting more and more weight.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:17 pm

Good point John, it's sometimes easy to for get about gravity as stored energy! Also then blocking something up, use wood and not concrete or cinser blocks or bricks to support the weight. They shatter when weight is concentrated on a single point.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Thu Mar 05, 2009 4:52 pm

Just had a farmer killed in this area. Driving his brand new tractor home and a pick-up truck couldn't slow down fast enough, patch of ice, and it hit him. Be careful if you are driving on a road. 6 MPH and 60 MPH don't mix well. Todd

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:51 pm

Todd, just saw that on channel 11 news today. was it the tractor driver killed , or the car driver? i just caught the tail end of the news report. JimG.

Re: 4 year old child dies in tractor accident/bush hog

Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:04 pm

It was the tractor driver. I think the newspaper said he was 65 years old. Probably as proud as can be driving the new tractor home, and then a few minutes later he was dead.